Can connect to VPN but no Network drives appear

[davehutch]

I've got a couple of Windows machines that work fine, so I definitely have the correct VPN information.
Also, when I hit "Connect", it does seem to connect successfully and I can see data traffic in both directions.
After that, I've tried to "Go to server" and whether I Browse, or enter the server details manually, it won't connect to the network server shares.
I think I've got the forward slashes all the right way around and I've tried adding the username to the end of the server address, which is an SMB.
No joy. Can anyone help please?
Thanks

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you tried adding a specific folder to the end of the server address?

 

[davehutch]

I'm putting in as follows

smb://server/folder/

I've also tried smb://server/folder/username

 

[JohnDS]

I have seen this many times.

The problem is usually that the remote lan and the local lan are on the same subnet. For instance, if both the local lan and the remote lan are on 192.168.1.x, then when you try to go to, say, 192.168.1.100, the Mac doesn't know if this is a local or remote address and will default to looking for a local address and not find the remote server with that IP address.

The easiest way to fix this is to go into the router prefs on the local network and change the subnet it is using to something different, say, 192.168.5.x. You will then have to reboot all your local devices.

 

[davehutch]

I have seen this many times.

The problem is usually that the remote lan and the local lan are on the same subnet. For instance, if both the local lan and the remote lan are on 192.168.1.x, then when you try to go to, say, 192.168.1.100, the Mac doesn't know if this is a local or remote address and will default to looking for a local address and not find the remote server with that IP address.

The easiest way to fix this is to go into the router prefs on the local network and change the subnet it is using to something different, say, 192.168.5.x. You will then have to reboot all your local devices.

Would that still be the case if the Windows machine is fine?
Does this issue only apply to the Mac?

 

[JohnDS]

Yes. Windows and Macs seem to work differently on VPN's. I can almost guarantee that changing the local LAN's subnet will solve your problem.

 

[davehutch]

Yes. Windows and Macs seem to work differently on VPN's. I can almost guarantee that changing the local LAN's subnet will solve your problem.

The problem is, I can only do that at home. What about using Starbucks etc?
I'll give it a go, but It's not a total solution. Out of interest, if I look at the VPN in Network Preferences, I'm given a totally different ip address to the range I'm using at home.
Just tried it using the iPhone PH and although I'm given an ip address totally outside my home broadband range, it still doesn't show the network drives, despite being connected to the VPN

 

[JohnDS]

What is the IP of the server you are trying to connect to and what is the IP of your home router? If they are in different subnets already, then that is not your problem. Please let us know so we can diagnose this properly

 

[davehutch]

Done it!
Actually the real reason is that I bought my wife a Macbook for Christmas and it's really important she can connect to her University as she's a lecturer.

I used her horrible Surface 3 to ping the two servers and then used smb://ip_address to connect.

That's a headache out of the way because it would have been a bit of a downer if she couldn't do that.
The second drive is an actual drive I think, rather than as ever, so I used smb://ip_address/drive$ and I'm now connected to both

Now I just hope the ip addresses are fixed!